Affordable Housing Tied To Diversity

May 23, 2000|By Vanessa Gezari, Tribune Staff Writer.

This past fall, April Van Dam-Gabler and Patricio Gabler were given 30 days to leave their two-bedroom apartment in Uptown. The couple believe tenants in their North Kenmore Avenue building were forced out to make way for a high-priced condominium conversion.

The Gablers were lucky. They found a one-bedroom apartment in nearby Edgewater. At $610 a month, it cost more than the two-bedroom they left behind.

"We're employed, but many other people [in the building] were not," Van Dam-Gabler said. "We really do wonder what happened to them."

The Chicago neighborhoods along the north lake shore have become a mecca for working families and immigrants from Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East. But in recent years, real estate values in Edgewater, Ravenswood, Uptown and Rogers Park have shot up, threatening to price them out of those neighborhoods.

Now the nonprofit Organization of the NorthEast is trying to convince developers, politicians and city leaders to help build affordable housing in the lakeside neighborhoods in hopes of salvaging their diverse character.

At its 26th annual convention Monday night, the group urged developers to use city incentives to build moderate-income condominiums and asked the city for $650,000 in tax credits to rehab a single-room-occupancy, or SRO, building at Leland and Racine Avenues.

In recognition of its diverse audience, the group's meeting was translated United Nations-style into Spanish, Cantonese and Khmer, the language spoken by Cambodians. The simultaneous translation system was purchased with a state grant through the offices of state Sen. Lisa Madigan and state Rep. Larry McKeon, both Democrats of Chicago.

Diversity is "why we moved here," said Randall Doubet-King , president of the Organization of the NorthEast, a coalition of religious congregations, community and ethnic groups and businesses.

"I look out the back window and see homes that sell for over $1 million and if I walk a block, I see people who live in Section 8 apartment complexes. The rainbow of colors and languages is just phenomenal," Doubet-King said. "[But] you look down your street and you realize you haven't seen any kids. The turnover at schools has been tremendous and the loss has been huge. [Families] move in and can't afford to stay."

Apartments that once rented for $600 a month now are being converted to condominiums that sell for $250,000 per unit, he said.

Several hundred residents attended the meeting along with community activists, city staffers and politicians.